The first person to look through a telescope at the Moon was Thomas Harriot, not Galileo

 Everyone knows that Galileo (1564-1642) was the first person to use a telescope to look at the night sky, its what all the astronomy books tell is, right? Actually no that’s wrong!! 

The first person to make a drawing of the Moon was by the English astronomer Thomas Harriot (1560-1621). Harriot made his drawing on July 26^th 1609 Galileo made his on November 30^th 1609, four months before Galileo. So what’s going on? 

I am not only the Rambling Astronomer, I also find myself sometimes becoming an astro- detective trying to solve astronomical mysteries. 

Here is one of those mysteries: 

Harriot by the time he observed the Moon was was already a well know scientist and mathematician. He was supported in his work by the Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy, a cousin of one of the gun powder plotters. In fact Harriot would get arrested for a short while. He was trying to keep a low profile at this time he did not want to get labelled as on of the gunpowder plotters so shouting and drawing attention to himself about making the first astronomical observation through a telescope would presumably attracted some attention. It could of course be the wrong kind of attention. He seemed happy with his observations and left it at that. 

Harriot died in 1621 and his papers seem to get lost, they were not re discovered until 1784 by Franz Xaver Zach an Austrian astronomer. He was appointed as tutor to the son of Count de Bruhl who was sent to England as Saxon Minister. While in England Zach visited the Egremont estates in Petworth in Sussex which had been part of the country estate of the Duke of Northumberland. Zach found Harriot’s manuscripts hidden among of all things the stable accounts. 

Franz Xaver Zach would go onto form the celestial police trying to locate an imaginary planet between Mars and Jupiter. He planned to form a group of astronomers who would be known as the  the celestial police, however  before they started observing the Italian astronomer Piazzi discovered beat them too it. He discovered  the first minor planet or asteroid, Ceres on January 1^st 1801.This area of the solar system is what is now know today as the asteroid belt. Ceres has since been reclassified as as a dwarf planet. 

Zach forwarded Harriot’s papers onto Oxford University in 1794 but due to a catalogue of errors Harriot's achievements including his  observation of the Moon were never published and he never got the credit he deserved. Today however scholars are trying to give Harriot the credit he is due for his observations of amongst other things the Moon. 

So the next time you read an astronomy book that says it was Galileo who made the first astronomical drawing while looking through a telescope it wasn’t .That credit should go to Thomas Harriot, a somewhat forgotten English astronomer. 

Or were there even earlier observations that have either been lost or have not yet been found?.

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